


reflecting light

by nickofhearts



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Bad Ending, M/M, Noctiscest, dystopian au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-11-01 22:06:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10930974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nickofhearts/pseuds/nickofhearts
Summary: Noctis has a shadow. Hisshadowhas a mind of its own.





	1. take one

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dreamingcicadas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamingcicadas/gifts).



Noct's shadow has always been with him. It whispers to him in quiet moments, tempting little thoughts of where to hit someone at their weakest, break them open to the _bone._

Noct smiles and keeps these thoughts to himself.

-

When the Nifs came, burning everything in their path, blood and fire and mayhem spilling brutally onto the streets, Noct was quiet. Watching.

In the back of his mind, his shadow screamed. 

_We'll make them pay,_ he whispered to Noct.

Noct nodded, tilting his head to the side where he could feel his shadow's breaths on his ear. "I know."

-

They take his magic, putting a bracelet on him that keeps it quiet under his skin, too far for Noct to pull forth, but they can't take his shadow. 

They have _no idea_ what Noctis is capable of.

-

"You're a creepy kid," the new regent says. "You plotting to murder us all in our beds?" He laughs, like it's a joke.

 _Not in your **beds,**_ Noctis doesn't say.

His shadow cackles, tucked against Noct's side. _We'll save **him** for last._


	2. take two

Noctis doesn't remember when his shadow started whispering to him—before the Nifs took over Insomnia? Before his father was murdered before his eyes?—but he's never doubted his shadow was anything but real.

-

_They think they control you. They think they can **use** you. But that's not true, is it Noctis?_

Noct twisted the bracelet around his wrist that kept his magic locked up. " _No,_ " he answered his shadow, and when the Nif made some other mocking comment about Noct being a puppet king on a paper throne, Noct ran forward and shoved him back as hard as he could.

It only moved the soldier a few steps, but it was enough. Noct's shadow reached through the mirror and did the rest.

Noct couldn't hear the screams from his side of the glass, but he could see the rictus of the dead man's face, the way his shadow smiled, mouth wet with blood.

 _Who's the mousie **now,**_ his shadow asked, laughing.

"Not _me,_ " Noct answered, placing his hand against the mirror's surface.

His shadow reached back, a perfect bloody handprint on the glass in reverse.

-

" _You had something to do with this,_ " the High Commander snarled at him, motioning at the hideously mutilated body they'd pulled off the Citadel's outer wall where Noct's shadow had strung it.

Noct rolled his eyes, holding up his hand with the magitek bracelet on it that kept all his magic inert beneath his skin, an itch he could never scratch. "Yeah, because I could _totally_ have warped up there with a 150 pound body, not to mention murdering him in the first place. That's logical."

The commander's face went red. " _Get out of my sight._ "

Noct went, his shadow laughing in his ear the whole way.

-

"You've got a smart mouth, _prince,_ " one of the nameless Nif soldiers in their nondescript uniforms called after him. "You should take care that someone doesn't shut it for you."

Noct bumped shoulders with his shadow, and his shadow grinned, showing sharp and bloody teeth.

-

Noctis ran on light feet, dashing around corners and into narrow walkways, the soldiers chasing him down too wide to fit through in their broad-shouldered armour. 

Noct stopped, turning perfectly on the spot in a dark room as they finally caught up and surrounded him.

"Looks like you're outnumbered, _prince._ " 

One of the guys cracked their knuckles menacingly. "We're going to teach you a lesson you're never going to forget."

Noct grinned. "Look _again,_ asshole."

The lights flickered on, illuminating mirrors positioned exactly against each wall. Noct was reflected in each of them, but in the reflection, he was the one standing behind the soldiers, claws out and ready to tear their throats wide open.

"What—" someone had time to ask, before Noct's shadow moved.

There was screaming, and then there was only the sound of bodies falling to the ground.

His shadow had gotten stronger, Noct knew. He no longer needed to pull them through the mirrors. There were wounds on the soldiers' bodies like ravenous wild animals had torn strips off, his shadow still languorously carving pieces from the corpses to snack on, each reflection showing a slightly different scene.

" _Delicious,_ " his shadow murmured into his ear, wrapping arms around Noct's middle. He felt solid, almost entirely real.

Noct turned his head, and his shadow kissed him, tasting of blood, and _power._

Noct felt it like an electric current running through him, the magic that he could no longer access. Just a little more, Noct thought, and perhaps they could overload the bracelet, melt it into the scrap it deserved to be.

 _Soon,_ his shadow promised, nuzzling his cheek against Noct's. _We'll both be free._


End file.
